Digital Commons Network^™

Models Of Shared Care For The Management Of Psychotic Disorder After First Diagnosis In Ontario., Joshua C. Wiener, Rebecca Rodrigues, Jennifer N S Reid, Kelly K. Anderson

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

OBJECTIVE: To describe the provision of care for young people following first diagnosis of psychotic disorder.

DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using health administrative data.

SETTING: Ontario.

PARTICIPANTS: People aged 14 to 35 years with a first diagnosis of nonaffective psychotic disorder in Ontario between 2005 and 2015 (N=39,449).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Models of care, defined by psychosis-related service contacts with primary care physicians and psychiatrists during the 2 years after first diagnosis of psychotic disorder.

RESULTS: During the 2-year follow-up period, 29% of the cohort received only primary care, 30% received only psychiatric care, and 32% received both primary and …

Google Search Trends To Assess Public Interest In And Concern About Vuity For Treating Presbyopia, Taku Wakabayashi, Hana A. Mansour, Robert Abishek, Jayanth Sridhar, Michael N. Cohen, David Xu, Jordan Deaner, Yoshihiro Yonekawa, Jason Hsu, Ajay E. Kuriyan

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

PURPOSE: To assess public awareness, interest, and concerns regarding Vuity (1.25% pilocarpine hydrochloride ophthalmic solution), an eye drop for the treatment of presbyopia, based on Google Trends.

METHODS: We used Google Trends that provides a relative search volume for queried terms, to evaluate searches for Vuity from June 30, 2021, to June 30, 2022, in the United States. The data for this study were downloaded on June 30, 2022. Main outcome measures were changes in relative search volumes for the terms "Vuity," "Eye drops for reading," "Eye drops for near vision," "Presbyopia," "Pilocarpine," and related popular search terms, such as …

Repurposing The Fda-Approved Anthelmintic Pyrvinium Pamoate For Pancreatic Cancer Treatment: Study Protocol For A Phase I Clinical Trial In Early-Stage Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma, Francesca M. Ponzini, Christopher W. Schultz, Benjamin E. Leiby, Shawnna Cannaday, T. Yeo, James Posey, Wilbur B. Bowne, Charles Yeo, Jonathan R. Brody, Harish Lavu, Avinoam Nevler

Department of Surgery Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Recent reports of the utilisation of pyrvinium pamoate (PP), an FDA-approved anti-helminth, have shown that it inhibits pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cell growth and proliferation in-vitro and in-vivo in preclinical models. Here, we report about an ongoing phase I open-label, single-arm, dose escalation clinical trial to determine the safety and tolerability of PP in PDAC surgical candidates.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: In a 3+3 dose design, PP is initiated 3 days prior to surgery. The first three patients will be treated with the initial dose of PP at 5 mg/kg orally for 3 days prior to surgery. Dose doubling will …

Sctiger: A Deep-Learning Method For Inferring Gene Regulatory Networks From Case Versus Control Scrna-Seq Datasets., Madison Dautle, Shaoqiang Zhang, Yong Chen

Faculty Scholarship for the College of Science & Mathematics

Inferring gene regulatory networks (GRNs) from single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) data is an important computational question to find regulatory mechanisms involved in fundamental cellular processes. Although many computational methods have been designed to predict GRNs from scRNA-seq data, they usually have high false positive rates and none infer GRNs by directly using the paired datasets of case-versus-control experiments. Here we present a novel deep-learning-based method, named scTIGER, for GRN detection by using the co-differential relationships of gene expression profiles in paired scRNA-seq datasets. scTIGER employs cell-type-based pseudotiming, an attention-based convolutional neural network method and permutation-based significance testing for inferring GRNs among …

Sickle Cell Disease Treatment With Arginine Therapy (Start): Study Protocol For A Phase 3 Randomized Controlled Trial., Chris A Rees, David C. Brousseau, Daniel M Cohen, Anthony Villella, Carlton Dampier, Kathleen Brown, Andrew Campbell, Corrie E Chumpitazi, Gladstone Airewele, Todd Chang, Christopher Denton, Angela Ellison, Alexis Thompson, Fahd Ahmad, Nitya Bakshi, Keli D Coleman, Sara Leibovich, Deborah Leake, Dunia Hatabah, Hagar Wilkinson, Michelle Robinson, T Charles Casper, Elliott Vichinsky, Claudia R Morris

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Despite substantial illness burden and healthcare utilization conferred by pain from vaso-occlusive episodes (VOE) in children with sickle cell disease (SCD), disease-modifying therapies to effectively treat SCD-VOE are lacking. The aim of the Sickle Cell Disease Treatment with Arginine Therapy (STArT) Trial is to provide definitive evidence regarding the efficacy of intravenous arginine as a treatment for acute SCD-VOE among children, adolescents, and young adults.

METHODS: STArT is a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, phase 3, multicenter trial of intravenous arginine therapy in 360 children, adolescents, and young adults who present with SCD-VOE. The STArT Trial is being conducted at 10 …

Sex Differences In The Clinical Presentation Of Early Psychosis In A Primary Care Setting, Brooke Carter, Rebecca Rodrigues, Jennifer Reid, Suzanne Archie, Amanda L Terry, Lena Palaniyappan, Arlene G Macdougall, Aristotle Voineskos, Saadia Hameed Jan, Liisa Jaakkimainen, Branson Chen, Neo Sawh, Kelly K. Anderson

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

Primary care is an important part of the help-seeking pathway for young people experiencing early psychosis, but sex differences in clinical presentation in these settings are unexplored. We aimed to identify sex differences in clinical presentation to primary care services in the 1-year period prior to a first diagnosis of psychotic disorder. We identified first-onset cases of non-affective psychotic disorder over a 10-year period (2005-2015) using health administrative data linked with electronic medical records (EMRs) from primary care (n = 465). Detailed information on encounters in the year prior to first diagnosis was abstracted, including psychiatric symptoms, other relevant behaviours, …

Artificial Intelligence Cad Tools In Trauma Imaging: A Scoping Review From The American Society Of Emergency Radiology (Aser) Ai/Ml Expert Panel., David Dreizin, Pedro V Staziaki, Garvit D Khatri, Nicholas M Beckmann, Zhaoyong Feng, Yuanyuan Liang, Zachary S Delproposto, Maximiliano Klug, J Stephen Spann, Nathan Sarkar, Yunting Fu

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: AI/ML CAD tools can potentially improve outcomes in the high-stakes, high-volume model of trauma radiology. No prior scoping review has been undertaken to comprehensively assess tools in this subspecialty.

PURPOSE: To map the evolution and current state of trauma radiology CAD tools along key dimensions of technology readiness.

METHODS: Following a search of databases, abstract screening, and full-text document review, CAD tool maturity was charted using elements of data curation, performance validation, outcomes research, explainability, user acceptance, and funding patterns. Descriptive statistics were used to illustrate key trends.

RESULTS: A total of 4052 records were screened, and 233 full-text …

Patient And Physician Factors Associated With First Diagnosis Of Non-Affective Psychotic Disorder In Primary Care, Joshua C. Wiener, Rebecca Rodrigues, Jennifer N S Reid, Suzanne Archie, Richard G Booth, Chiachen Cheng, Saadia Hameed Jan, Paul Kurdyak, Arlene G Macdougall, Lena Palaniyappan, Bridget L Ryan, Kelly K. Anderson

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

Primary care physicians play a central role in pathways to care for first-episode psychosis, and their increased involvement in early detection could improve service-related outcomes. The aim of this study was to estimate the proportion of psychosis first diagnosed in primary care, and identify associated patient and physician factors. We used linked health administrative data to construct a retrospective cohort of people aged 14-35 years with a first diagnosis of non-affective psychosis in Ontario, Canada between 2005-2015. We restricted the sample to patients with help-seeking contacts for mental health reasons in primary care in the six months prior to first …

Evaluating The Feasibility And Potential Impacts Of A Recovery-Oriented Psychosocial Rehabilitation Toolkit In A Health Care Setting In Kenya: A Mixed-Methods Study, Regina Casey, Joshua C. Wiener, Terry Krupa, Rosemary Lysaght, Marlene Janzen Le Ber, Ruth Ruhara, Elizabeth Price, Romaisa Pervez, Sean Kidd, Victoria Mutiso, David M Ndetei, Arlene G Macdougall

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

OBJECTIVES: This pilot study evaluated the feasibility and potential impacts of delivering the Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) Toolkit for people with serious mental illness within a health care setting in Kenya.

METHOD: This study used a convergent mixed-methods design. Participants were people with serious mental illness (n = 23), each with an accompanying family member, who were outpatients of a hospital or satellite clinic in semirural Kenya. The intervention consisted of 14 weekly group sessions of PSR cofacilitated by health care professionals and peers with mental illness. Quantitative data were collected from patients and family members using validated outcome measures before …

Ultrasound-Assisted Air-Jet Spinning Of Silk Fibroin-Soy Protein Nanofiber Composite Biomaterials., Futian Yang, Fang Wang, Janine Mazahreh, Xiao Hu

Faculty Scholarship for the College of Science & Mathematics

Ultrasound utilizes a non-radiation technology that can meet modern standards to gain access to cheap, reliable and sustainable modern energy. Ultrasound technology can be implemented in the field of biomaterials for its exceptional potential in controlling the shape of nanomaterials. This study presents the first example of the production of soy and silk fibroin protein composite nanofibers in various ratios via combining ultrasonic technology with air-spray spinning. Characterization of ultrasonic spun nanofibers was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, water contact angle, water retention, enzymatic …

Kif6 Trp719arg Genetic Variant Increases Risk For Thoracic Aortic Dissection, Juan J Velasco, Yupeng Li, Bulat A Ziganshin, Mohammad A Zafar, John A Rizzo, Deqiong Ma, Hui Zang, Asanish Kalyanasundaram, John A Elefteriades

Faculty Scholarship for the College of Science & Mathematics

Background: KIF6 (kinesin family member 6), a protein coded by the KIF6 gene, serves an important intracellular function to transport organelles along microtubules. In a pilot study, we found that a common KIF6 Trp719Arg variant increased the propensity of thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA) to suffer dissection (AD). The present study aims for a definite investigation of the predictive ability of KIF6 719Arg vis à vis AD. Confirmatory findings would enhance natural history prediction in TAA. Methods: 1108 subjects (899 aneurysm and 209 dissection patients) had KIF6 719Arg variant status determined. Results: The 719Arg variant in the KIF6 gene correlated strongly …

Architectural Design Of A Blockchain-Enabled, Federated Learning Platform For Algorithmic Fairness In Predictive Health Care: Design Science Study, Xueping Liang, Juan Zhao, Yan Chen, Eranga Bandara, Sachin Shetty

VMASC Publications

Background: Developing effective and generalizable predictive models is critical for disease prediction and clinical decision-making, often requiring diverse samples to mitigate population bias and address algorithmic fairness. However, a major challenge is to retrieve learning models across multiple institutions without bringing in local biases and inequity, while preserving individual patients' privacy at each site.

Objective: This study aims to understand the issues of bias and fairness in the machine learning process used in the predictive health care domain. We proposed a software architecture that integrates federated learning and blockchain to improve fairness, while maintaining acceptable prediction accuracy and minimizing overhead …

The Shortfalls Of Vulnerability Indexes For Public Health Decision-Making In The Face Of Emergent Crises: The Case Of Covid-19 Vaccine Uptake In Virginia, Lydia Cleveland Sa, Erika Frydenlund

VMASC Publications

Equitable and effective vaccine uptake is a key issue in addressing COVID-19. To achieve this, we must comprehensively characterize the context-specific socio-behavioral and structural determinants of vaccine uptake. However, to quickly focus public health interventions, state agencies and planners often rely on already existing indexes of "vulnerability." Many such "vulnerability indexes" exist and become benchmarks for targeting interventions in wide ranging scenarios, but they vary considerably in the factors and themes that they cover. Some are even uncritical of the use of the word "vulnerable," which should take on different meanings in different contexts. The objective of this study is …

A Review Of Piezoelectric Footwear Energy Harvesters: Principles, Methods, And Applications, Bingqi Zhao, Feng Qian, Alexander Hatfield, Lei Zuo, Tian-Bing Xu

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Over the last couple of decades, numerous piezoelectric footwear energy harvesters (PFEHs) have been reported in the literature. This paper reviews the principles, methods, and applications of PFEH technologies. First, the popular piezoelectric materials used and their properties for PEEHs are summarized. Then, the force interaction with the ground and dynamic energy distribution on the footprint as well as accelerations are analyzed and summarized to provide the baseline, constraints, potential, and limitations for PFEH design. Furthermore, the energy flow from human walking to the usable energy by the PFEHs and the methods to improve the energy conversion efficiency are presented. …

Readiness For Transfer: A Mixed-Methods Study On Icu Transfers Of Care, Soo-Hoon Lee, Clarice Wee, Phillip Phan, Yanika Kowitlawakul, Chee-Kiat Tan, Amartya Mukhopadhyay

Management Faculty Publications

Objective Past studies on intensive care unit (ICU) patient transfers compare the efficacy of using standardised checklists against unstructured communications. Less studied are the experiences of clinicians in enacting bidirectional (send/receive) transfers. This study reports on the differences in protocols and data elements between receiving and sending transfers in the ICU, and the elements constituting readiness for transfer.

Methods Mixed-methods study of a 574-bed general hospital in Singapore with a 74-bed ICU for surgical and medical patients. Six focus group discussions (FGDs) with 34 clinicians comprising 15 residents and 19 nurses, followed by a structured questionnaire survey of 140 clinicians …